Fragments of Sora
by yinboo
Summary: The digidestined have grown up and gone their separate ways, with even their memories of the Digital World fading away with time. But when, by a stroke of fate, Sora is reunited with one of her old flames - could hope still exist for the digidestined to unite and stave off the malicious miasma, that threatens to consume the entire Digital World?
1. Chapter One, Part 1

There comes a certain point in your life when you are no longer a child. When your old friends, the games you played together, and the many experiences you had with them, that had once seemed to mean everything in the world to you, become merely a thing of yesterday.

Sora Takenouchi's days of childhood are long over.

She is working at the Hanekawa and Associates Law Firm in Shinjuku as a legal secretary. Her days are filled with the sound of keys clicking and creaking computer chairs. But sometimes, like anybody at her age would; at the nexus of childhood and adulthood, she reminisces about the days of her youth.

She glances at a photo on top of her desk, beside the computer. It was of her and two boys she thinks she knew in High School. They are laughing together with their arms wrapped around each other, dressed in the bland green uniforms of the school but still managing to look as fresh and vibrant as ever. One had a head of tannish, spiky hair, and the other had bushier, dark brown hair.

_What were their names again, anyway...?_

For some odd reason, she could not remember their names. It had been bugging her lately, how foggy her memories of all her old school friends had become.

"Sora, are you going to be staying in late today?" Somebody asks. Sora knew who it was, even before she looked up. How could she not recognize the distinct lisp and hiss of spit on dry, chaffed lips.

"No, mister Hanekawa. Is it five'o'clock already?" She says quickly.

"Yep, your time with me today is done." He leans over the wall of her cubicle, looking down at her through a pair of squarish spectacles. The scent of his cologne enough to make Sora feel slightly nauseous. "So come now, young women like you shouldn't be working late. Hit a club with your boyfriend, grab a couple of drinks, why don't you?"

"Mister Hanekawa, I believe I may have told you before, but I do not have a boyfriend." Sora says, maintaining a pleasant tone. "Besides, I don't drink."

Hanekawa seems disappointed, as Sora rises from her chair and pulls her purse's strap over her shoulder.

"I'll see you on Monday then, Sora?"

She nods in response and then makes her way down the hallway, the fake smile on her face fading as she enters the elevator.

...

"You should listen to your creepy boss this time, Sora!" Mimi says to her over the phone, after Sora had explained the entire ordeal to her. "You've been single for way too long. It's time you got that sweet ass of yours back on the market!"

The young legal secretary is walking toward her car parked in the underground parking lot, holding her cell phone against her ear in the grip of a shoulder and the side of her face.

"Oh stop it, you know how embarrassed I get when you carry on like that."

"I'm serious, though! Hit a club like he said, any club - might I recommend the La Blue downtown - and guys will be all over you I swear."

Grinning secretly as she listens to Mimi's rant, Sora plugs her keys into the door of her shining new, bright red Toyeta Halberd and crawls inside, locking all of the doors by instinct. She takes a deep breath, feeling cozy in the warm car following a long day in a cold office.

"Tell you what, it's Friday, so we're going to the La Blue together, _tonight_." Mimi adds, adamantly.

"The La Blue? That edgy, new night club everybody's been talking about? The one with the blue neon flamingos at the entrance?"

"That's the one."

Mimi, I don't even have any good casuals to wear." Sora says, while she fondles the little tree hanging from the rearview mirror. "Definitely nothing sexy. Unless those tanktops you bought me for Christmas last year count."

"Tanktops should be fine. It's all about leaving a little to the imagination, you know? Show off some shoulder and let them do the rest."

Sora is about to start her car when she catches something moving in the rearview mirror, and she pauses midway.

"Sora...?"

With a loud _thunk _a face suddenly appears, pressed against the driver seat window. A man's face. Startled, Sora squeals and leans away from the window, listening with a fast-beating heart to the sounds of this person pulling and punching at the door, trying to open it.

"Go away!" Sora shouts at him, and kicks at the door. He looks up from his hands, at her, and they lock eyes.

She recognized him from somewhere, from his eyes alone - a bold and intense stare with brown-red colored pupils; as if there were a fire burning just beneath his gaze.

"Sora...Sora?" She can hear Mimi calling out from over the phone, but she ignores her friend's frantic pleas.

Feeling the fear within her slowly melting away, Sora places a hand onto the window and strokes along its surface with a pronounced tenderness, as if she were petting a child's face. The man on the other side of the window merely stares, unmoving; whatever mission he had come here to fulfill apparently no longer a priority.

This was one of the boys she had known in High School. One of the two boys she had a photo of on her desk, laughing and smiling with her, in the office. Every fiber of her being was certain of it.

Before Sora can successfully put two and two together, her car's alarm goes off. Reacting quickly, she leans over to try her hand at the complicated control panel but by the time she finds the button to turn off the alarm, the curious man has disappeared.


	2. Chapter One, Part 2

Sora Takenouchi has just pulled out of the parking garage and onto the streets of central Shinjuku.

The thing about Shinjuku is that it was nothing like the Shinjuku Sora was familiar with growing up, when she often came here to visit relatives. There were more cars on the road, for one - a fact she is promptly reminded of when she finds herself stuck behind a row of cars at a red stoplight. A chorus of honking horns and curses being uttered fill the air, all still barely audible beneath the ever-present, droning sound of modern American pop songs being played on a car radio - things were louder and chaotic around here as well, that's for sure.

Overall, though, the people and buildings of Shinjuku seemed to now lack the alluring luster they once possessed, that had originally attracted Sora to live and work here, when seen through the eyes of a child. But this was the city she had lived in for the past six years, after all, so there were no longer any surprises; no new discoveries to be made. No department store around the corner she had never seen before. It was just 'same old, same old' now, and she was perfectly content with that.

Sighing, Sora decides to turn on the radio, and tunes in to 97.5 FM - 'Realtalk radio', finding herself caught in a debate regarding the government's recent constitutional changes. The radio host's voice is scratchy and hoarse, like a smoker's.

"...don't know if a constitutional ruling about gay marriage, and homosexual relationships is what this country needs right now, but it's a welcome change from all of this spending on 'cyber security', as they call it..."

Sora's thoughts immediately go to Mimi and her girlfriend. Would they be able to tie the knot together now, after all? But then she turns the dial to a different station, to one playing a pop song she recognized, that had something to do with 'falling in love for the first time'. As if she'd never heard a song written about that before.

The stoplight finally turns green and she turns left, in the direction of her apartment.

As much as she tried to focus her mind on other things; on the road, on the music that was playing, she kept thinking about her experience in the parking lot. Who was that man, and was he really once one of her High School friends?

Can you even recognize a person based on their eyes alone like that?

It seemed ludicrous, like something from a cheesy romantic comedy. But still, a nagging part of her was certain she would eventually remember the name of the two boys, and with that knowledge restored, everything would magically make sense.

What kind of dimwit forgets the names of her friends anyway? She thinks, and racks her mind some more, only barely aware of the road now.

Only when her cell phone starts to ring is she jarred back to the real world.

"Answer." She says into her wireless headset.

It was Mimi again.

"Sora, you just passed me at the McDolan's! Get back here - we should all grab something to eat together and then maybe do some shopping." Mimi says all at once, again exhibiting her incredible gift of gab.

"You know, for stuff to wear tonight!"

...

"Okay, you said 'we' over the phone, so I was pretty sure Amelia would be with you." Sora tells Mimi, after they greet each other at the fast food restaurant and take their seat. The sound of bubbling frying oil and busy cashiers is a constant and prevailing part of the atmosphere here.

"Yeah she'll be here soon, she had to go." Mimi says, quickly pointing in that direction over her shoulder.

Mimi had been Sora's friend for as long as she could remember: through elementary school, middle and high school, they were always together. They had even attended the same law school together for a while, until Mimi had suddenly and inexplicably dropped out. College degree or not, though, her friend could always make it her own way. She had discovered a fulfilling career managing a hair and beauty salon, and one might say, with her glorious head of long, bright pink hair, as eccentric and flighty as she was, she always kept the business on top.

"That must have been some huge cockroach earlier." Mimi says with a grin. "You screamed like a little girl."

Sora raises an eyebrow, confused at first, but remembers the lie she had told Mimi about what had happened in the parking lot.

"Yeah, but I managed to coax it out of a window safely, eventually."

Mimi looks like she is about to say something, when Amelia returns to the table.

"Hello, Sorra, what are you doing here? I thought you avoided sloppy eateries such as this like the plaque?" Amelia says as she sits, evoking a little laughter among the group of girls.

"Well I'm okay with it when I'm in a group, because this way, I know I'm not the only one destroying my cholesterol level."

"You probably just ordered a salad anyway." Mimi chimes in, with a playful glimmer in her eyes. Then she adds, in a fake British accent mimicking Amelia's own, "A tray of crunchy week-old vegetables really hits the spot, doesn't it Sora?"

The three laugh some more, and continue to talk and joke about everyday things until their order number is called.

"I'll get it!" Mimi says, and goes to get the food, leaving Amelia and Sora to talk alone.

"Amelia, are you and Mimi going to get married?" Sora takes the opportunity to ask.

"Well, we're not sure yet. But if you think about it, just because we can get married, it doesn't mean we have to." Amelia says, crossing her arms atop the table. "A man and a woman can get married any time they please, but that's not to say all men and women are married, is it?"

Sora nods in understanding, and on that note, Mimi returns, carrying a tray of food.

...

He is moving at a brisk walk through Shinjuku city, his encounter with the young woman in the parking lot still fresh on his mind. It was his first attempt at robbing somebody, so it seemed like an amazing coincidence that he would recognize his first would-be victim.

It was Sora...Sora Takenouchi.

He had recognized her, the moment he saw her. And he could tell she had recognized him as well, by the look on her face and the stroke of her hand against the window.

We met at that summer camp, long ago. We went to the same middle school, high school...

He stops in front of an internet cafe, 'Izumi', the only one in the area. A red neon sign, currently turned off, that read 'Open 24 Hours' is visible in the front window.

She said something about La Blue, could she be going there tonight?

The man opens the door to the cafe, bells ringing in his wake, and steps inside.


	3. Chapter One, Part 3

Sora, Mimi and Amelia are at a department store shopping for clothes to wear to the La Blue that night. Mimi had practically dragged Sora to one store in particular, called 'Mystique' which, according to her, was 'the epicentre of all things hot and trendy'.

Through Sora's eyes, though, the place was completely different from where she usually went looking to buy clothes. There was not a single coat, vest or blouse in sight, and everywhere she looked, there were sparkles and jewels decorating some pair of jeans, some belt or scanty tubetop on display.

"These shorts are so..._short_." Sora says, holding up a pair by the hanger for Mimi and Amelia to see, who were browsing through other sections of the store.

"You're like an old lady sometimes, Sora, I swear!" Mimi says, snickering while she examines a purple camisole. "Don't be afraid to show a little leg."

An old lady? I'll show you.

Sora comfidently retrieves the pair of shorts from the rack and continues on her way, to the shirts and tops section. She is hardly given enough time to examine a tanktop that catches her eye when Mimi shouts.

"Holy shit, isn't that Yamato-kun?"

Yamato-kun, who is that...?

Sora turns her head to see a young man with a head of spiky, dirty blonde hair, waiting at the cashier as his clothes are being scanned.

"Yo, Yamato-kun!" Mimi shouts, waving, and the young man turns around smoothly. Sora gasps when they meet eyes: his a brilliant, pearly blue, hers a not unusual; boring dark brown. The young man's expression opens up immediately.

"Sora Takenouchi? That's you, isn't it?" He says, with a voice that seemed as mysterious and deep as the ocean, yet still not deep enough to drown in.

Sora was at a loss for words. Not only did this man know who she was, but she felt she knew who he was, when she thought again of that photograph with the two boys.

"You're Yamato Ishida. You're Matt." Sora says with her eyes half-shut in concentration: she had a name come up but all the same, her memory was foggy. Who was he really?

"Yeah. Tokyo, right? We went to the same High School." He rubs his arm nervously as he continues. "Don't you remember?"

Sora blinks. It seemed like an odd question. It also seemed like a coincidence that he would ask that, considering she had so much trouble recalling parts of her past lately. To her, it was almost as though her memories had slowly faded away since the day she hung up those old photos in her cubicle.

Suddenly Mimi squeals, and shoves Sora out of the way.

"Oh Yamato-kun, please tell me you'll be playing tonight!" She pleads with him, "Because I swear I won't even come if you aren't."

He looks embarassed at first, but it quickly dissolves into a smile. "Of course we'll be playing tonight. For fans like you, Mimi."

Mimi is ecstatic, and Amelia, who had before now been watching from a distance, comes and joins her in a hug. Sora, however, eyes Yamato with suspicion as he takes his shopping bag and briskly leaves the store.

Mimi and Amelia calm down, and see that he has left.

"Wow, he didn't even say goodbye. Jerk." Mimi says, pouting a little.

"How did he know your name, Mimi?" Sora asks, looking at her sharply.

Mimi looks confused. "Oh, well...I guess I am kind of popular around here. But still, rock star or not, he said it so casually." She gasps and clings closer to Amelia. "He said it like I were his girlfriend or something!"

Sora sets the shorts she had picked out onto the cashier desk.

First the situation in the parking lot, and now this?

Something was definitely wrong, and she knew that it was somehow centered around those two boys: Yamato Ishida and...

...

Taichi Kamiya has entered Izumi's internet cafe. It was not a busy afternoon, as far as he could tell. He could see from here that the front desk clerk was in the back watching TV, struggling to balance herself on a three and a half-legged chair. A 'No Coffee' sign is decorating the wall adjacent to her.

"Hey-o, can I get a double mochachino mister Izumi?" Tai calls out.

The clerk stirs a little then looks over her shoulder, smiling when her eyes meet Tai.

"I'm afraid my husband isn't in right now, Tai." She calls back. "But you can come back later, if you like. I bet he'll get you that mochachino."

"Well, to hell with that mochachino in that case." Tai says, pulling his wallet out of his pocket, draws one five dollar bill from it then places the money onto the counter. "Is he online right now?"

"Yep."

"Well that's good, because I've got something important to tell him."

When he attempts to push the wallet back into his pocket something falls out, hitting the floor with a loud TINK. Tai looks down, and sees a palm-sized red object that looked like a typical virtual pet console lying on the floor. He stares at it for a while then picks it up, taking more care when stashing it into his pocket this time.

I'm sorry, Sora.

After nodding to the woman behind the counter, Tai pushes a curtain hanging from a doorway which lead to another room out of his way. As he enters this room and the curtains close, the entire space goes completely dark except for the light of the computer monitors, which form a square perimeter. There is nobody else in the room.

Whistling, Tai takes a seat at one of the computers, the chair scraping loudly against the tiled floor as he pulls it back in. Then, fidgeting in his pocket for a bit, he pulls out another light device that was similar in design to the one he had dropped before, except it was light orange, and he holds it in front of the computer monitor, facing away from him.

If anybody else had been in the room, they would have sworn that within ten seconds, the man called Taichi Kamiya had completely vanished into thin air.


	4. Chapter One, Part 4

Night has fallen by the time Sora and company arrive at the La Blue. The club is impossible to miss - Sora had passed it on her way to work many times before without giving it a second thought, its entrance heralded by a host of blue neon flamingos and palm trees, and two parallel rows of blinding floodlights pointed skyward to either side of the long red carpet which extended from the road to the pearly white double doors.

Sora wasn't sure what looked tackier - the night club entrance or her, in the clothes she was wearing.

The shorts she had bought, which she thought were quite short enough as they were, had been cut even shorter by either Mimi or Amelia, but she was fairly sure it wasn't Amelia. The shorts had effectively been transformed into 'booty' shorts, and Sora, who had never been so nervous in her memorable life, tried to cover her naked legs as best she could by tyeing her jacket around her waist. Of course, this left her feeling exposed in another way, wearing the pink camisole with a purple ribbon Mimi had bought for her earlier, that stopped at only halfway down her torso.

"Mimi, I feel like a slut." Sora says, looking herself up and down. Even her regular pair of black pumps, which she usually wore to work, had taken on a more erotic personality.

At the door, they are greeted by two bouncers.

"Cuan!" Mimi runs toward one of the bouncers, and they trade kisses on the cheek.

"Hello ladies." He says, then kisses Amelia on the cheek as well. He looks at Sora. "And who is this pretty young thing?" Cuan extends a hand as if to grab Sora by the waist, but she moves away, glaring at him.

"Don't mind her." Mimi says, then leans close to the bouncer's ear and adds in a whisper, "She doesn't get out much."

Mimi and Amelia enter the nightclub together, laughing, but Sora remains outside. She pulls down at her camisole, as if trying to make it provide a better cover of her stomach, and is so drawn with this task that she accidentally bumps into somebody, and she falls down, square on her butt.

"Oh sorry, I wasn't paying attention." Sora says then looks up, and is surprised to see Matt - Yamato Ishida - looking down at her.

"We need to talk." He says simply.

...

Gabumon perks up - he had heard something.

"Matt?" The Digimon says aloud, looking up into the sky.

The name of its tamer left a bittersweet aftertaste on his tongue. He hadn't heard from him in years and yet, for one split second, he felt as though they were standing right next to each other. As though they were close again.

"Not Matt, but Tai's here." Tai Kamiya says as he emerges from the cover of the Digital Forest, brushing off his arms and legs.

"Hey Gabumon, have you seen Izzy around?"

Gabumon squints, trying to remember something Matt had told him, the last time they were together.

Tai stares down at him, wondering if he had even heard the question. Then again, Gabumon hadn't been himself since Matt had left.

It happened almost two months ago, but Tai could remember it like it was yesterday, because they had been in an intense argument. That is until Matt stormed away in a rage, saying, "I've got more important things to do than playing games with your imaginary monsters now." Thenthrew his digivice onto the ground, and warped back to the real world.

Tai hadn't seem him, and Gabumon had hardly moved from his spot since then; waiting for him to return.

Suddenly, Tai could feel something vibrating in his left pocket, the one with the two digivices in it. He takes it his own digivice, and sees that he was receiving an incoming message from Izzy.

His face shows up on the small screen of the digivice as he speaks, and Tai notices a series of pipes and dials set on the chrome-colored metallic wall behind him.

"Tai, I'm glad you could come. I take it Yumiko told you I wanted to see you?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry I haven't been online lately, things have gotten kind of..."

Izzy interrupts him. "Listen, Tai, you need to come see this. It's growing."

When he hears the very words he had been dreading to hear, Tai's heart sinks. He takes a look back at Gabumon, and can tell he had heard as well, and was just as frightened as he was.

"Okay, warp me there." Tai says firmly, holding his digivice face up over his head.

...

"Didn't you tell Mimi you were going to play here tonight?" Sora asks Matt, smiling a teethy smile.

"Are you kidding? Do you not understand the implications of telling a fan that the band is taking a break tonight?" Matt answers and laughs, waving the martini glass in his hand around. "Rumors spread fast around here, and fast too. Before you know it, the latest news is that we all died in a freak traffic accident while touring." He pauses for a bit to take a drink. "Things either happen around here or they don't, you can't rely on word of mouth to know beforehand."

They clink glasses with each other and drink.

The young rock star is sitting, with Sora, in a private booth at the back of the nightclub. They are in a room down a long hallway, blocked off from it only by a cyan blue curtain covered in glitter. The music playing on the dance floor can still be heard from here, occassionaly spiking loud enough to make the table vibrate.

"You might want to keep your drink off of the table." Matt suggests and Sora complies, taking her glass up and takes another sip.

She was having fun but at the back of her mind, her questions and worries remained. This must have shown in her demeanor as she lowered her glass, because Matt takes notice.

"What's bothering you?" He asks.

Sora didn't want to ruin the night, but she thought if anybody could provide her with answers, it would be him.

"I've had this...problem, lately, but I think you might be able to help."

Sora tries to think for a moment, despite the many ongoing distractions. "I remember going to classes. My teachers. Most of my fellow classmates." She looks at Matt, straight in the eye. "But I hardly remember anything about you. It's like there's this fog in my head, that covers a select few of my memories, so I can't recall them, especially about school. Even when I try to remember how Mimi and I met, I find myself just...turning up empty." As the words escape her lips, she continually glances away from Matt, half-expecting him to tell her it was just a memory problem, or even to dismiss her as being mentally unstable. But he listened and nodded through it all, with a serious but alert and understanding look in his eyes.

"Do you remember that camp we all went to?" He says shortly after she finishes.

Sora froze.

The camp...she could picture the younger Matt now, and herself...standing in the snow...something happened...

"Do you remember Tai?" Matt adds, leaning his face closer to hers.

Tai was there too...he liked to play soccer...he wore goggles...

"Joe? T.K.? Izzy? Kari?" Matt calls out the names of the other digidestined in quick succession, slapping his hand against the table with each name he calls.

Sora thinks about it for a while, but none of the names really stood out in her mind. Feeling somewhat guilty, she shakes her head. "Nothing's coming up, sorry."

Matt sighs and rests his head on his arm, his hand covering his face. As he does so, Sora catches sight of a glimmering object hanging around his neck by a silver chain.

"What's that, hanging around your neck?" She asks, squinting to get a better look at a symbol that marked its surface.

Matt grabs it and holds it, concealed from her view in his closed hand.

"It's something that used to be very important to me." He says, looking away with a sad look in his eyes.

Sora shrinks away, and an awkward tension fills the booth for the rest of the rest of their night together.


End file.
